Mike Nadel: How 'bout that? Bears live on

You just can't keep a good team down. Apparently, you can't keep the Chicago Bears down, either.

Mike Nadel

You just can't keep a good team down. Apparently, you can't keep the Chicago Bears down, either.

With 7 1/2 minutes to play Sunday, their pulse was so faint that the preacher was standing by, ready to perform the last rites on a season that never seemed to have a chance.

They trailed the Denver Broncos 34-20, the only two Bears touchdowns having been delivered by the magical Devin Hester. Assisted by his incompetent linemen and butterfingered receivers, Rex Grossman had played down to expectations. The once stout but now mostly bad Bears defense allowed 30-plus points for the fifth time this year.

As the defending NFC champs stared into the barrel of a 4-7 record, the booing fans at Soldier Field had their collective finger on the trigger.

"We were in a world of hurt," tight end Desmond Clark said. "It's stressful, man. Your brain is going, 'What are we gonna do? We gotta do something!'"

And then, just like that, they did everything -- including winning a game they had no business winning, 37-34 in overtime.

"If we're gonna lose, we're gonna go out fighting," said Peanut Tillman, who sparked the comeback by blocking Todd Sauerbrun's punt with 7:14 left in regulation. "Our attitude is: 'Lose and go home or win and keep playing.'"

While few folks are foolish enough to believe Sunday's result signals a return to glory, take a look at the standings. Incredibly, at 5-6, the Bears are only one game out of a wild-card spot in a conference that has only two good teams.

Of course, the list of not-very-good NFC teams includes the Bears.

"It's hard to justify saying you're a good team," Clark said. "We know we're a good team, but I think people are really getting tired of hearing us say it - especially when we go out and play like a not-good team."

For most of Sunday, the Bears specialized in not-goodness.

The defense allowed scoring drives of 84 and 89 yards and also surrendered a 68-yard touchdown pass - all in the second half. Backup Denver tailback Andre Hall, whom the Bears had cut before the 2006 season, rushed for 98 yards.

Grossman lost two fumbles, threw an interception and was sacked three times; after the second fumble, thousands of fans chanted Kyle Orton's name. Denver pass-rushers ran around Fred Miller as if the right tackle's feet had been planted in cement. Bernard Berrian and Moose Muhammad took turns dropping passes. Adrian Peterson replaced injured tailback Cedric Benson and showed why he can't supplant even a sled like Ced.

Take away Hester - which Broncos coach Mike Shanahan stubbornly refused to do; will these macho coaches ever learn? - and the Bears would have been a rumor.

Then came Tillman's blocked punt ... and it was as if somebody had replaced these Bears with the '85 gang.

Peterson moved a pile into the end zone - or, more accurately, the pile moved him - and it was 34-27. Adewale Ogunleye sacked Jay Cutler, getting Chicago the ball back with 2:58 to go. Facing a fourth-and-9 at his own 36, Grossman's pass to Muhammad fell incomplete but a Denver penalty kept the drive (and the season) alive. After that, Rex seemed at ease and in charge, confidently delivering passes to his receivers and marching his team down the field.

Eventually, it came down to Berrian's fourth-down circus catch in the end zone ... and the maddeningly long wait for a replay review to confirm that the Bears had tied the game with 28 seconds on the clock.

"I'm like, 'Why are they taking so long to make the call? It's an easy call to make!'" Berrian said. "I knew it was a touchdown, but sometimes they don't go the way you want them to. Sometimes, replay does some funny things. So I was relieved when the ref said, 'Touchdown!'"

Relief turned to sheer joy in overtime as the Bears won the toss, Grossman threw a perfect 39-yard pass to Clark and Robbie Gould drilled a 39-yard field goal.

Dr. Frankenstein couldn't have turned death to life any better.

"You don't want it to go down to the last possible second, but we'll take it anyway we can get it at this point," Clark said. "We've got a mountain to climb and it's about 6,000 feet high. We only climbed 1,000 feet today, so we've got another 5,000 feet to go - and that's the next five games."

The Bears are still under .500 and they are nowhere near proving they're as good as they think they are.

But they showed heart and desire and resiliency. And for one more week, at least, they remained alive.

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.

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